Page:Early Reminiscences.djvu/252

 EARLY REMINISCENCES needed, a rationale of the English Church, which I thoroughly laid hold of, and from which I have never deviated. On one occasion my mother took me to the French Protestant conventicle ; the pastor there was named Nougaret. Mr. Hadow absolutely refused to go, and I went in a resentful spirit, and exhibited my dislike sufficiently to induce my mother never to take me there again. It was the quarterly communion. My ^brother entered in his diary : " Every Sunday we have service. First, Papa reads the Church service in the morning ; after early dinner those who like go to the French Protestant church. Papa is not among these. Miss Richardson stays at home, Mr. Hadow does not go either ; nor will Sabine. The service is intolerably prosy. In the evening after tea we have service again, and a sermon—quite sufficient ! " I did not then understand how it was that my mother could go to such a place and endure such a performance, holding the principles that she did. I can explain it now. In the first place, she went to improve her French, as she might have gone to a theatre. But in the second place, I hold that she possessed the same principle that actuated the Caroline Divines, and regarded the Protestant ministration as good and valid so far as it went. The pastors did not claim to be priests or to be other than lecturers on theology. They did not pretend to belong to the Catholic Church, nor teach the Catholic Faith ; they belonged to a sect which took its birth in the sixteenth century. Consequently, taking their ministrations for what they pretend to be, they are valid. And the Protestant congregations ask for nothing better than this substitute. They want no worship properly so called, no Divine Benedictions, only harangues, and a congregational sing-song. All that they ask is to be addressed by a pastor, and that they get for their money, and are satisfied. This was the view adopted by our Caroline divines, Overall, Andrewes, Bramhall, Laud and Thorndike. If you are not in quest of a jewel, you are content to put up with a pebble. I think that, by what I said as we walked home, I convinced my mother of the injudiciousness of taking me to the Protestant meeting-house. I was, I admit, boiling over with wrath at having been made to go to such a place, and attend such a service. I am very well aware that I was made up of a bundle of prejudices